// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhy was Synathroesmus sad? It had a bug in its system.
Synathroesmus (sin-ath-RES-mus) is a rhetorical device which involves the collection or listing of words, often adjectives, in a list; it also may be spelled synathroismos or sinathrismus and is also referred to as frequentatio or the heaping figure.[1] The gathered words may or may not be synonyms and may involve the collection of previous phrases or ideas from an oral or written work. Often, synathroesmus is used invectively: to emphasize blame or negative traits.
Etymology
[edit]Synathroesmus is derived from Greek synathroismos (Greek: συναθροισμός; "a collection, union")[2]
Rhetorical use
[edit]Synathroesmus, being a collection of like terms, is meant to emphasize a description of the subject. When the subject is an inanimate object, synathroesmus may enliven it and create vivid imagery.[2] The piling up of descriptions can accentuate a cumulative favoring or disfavoring towards its subject;[3] in the latter case, where is it a heap of insults, it is referred to as bdelygmia[4]: 216
According to Mark Forsyth, part of the effectiveness of such listings is because of their unnaturalness in normal oral language which emphasizes imagery or tone in a manner unfound in human speech: "Nobody but a God or a fool talks in lists."[4]: 214
Examples
[edit]- In "Nicholas Nickleby," Dickens uses synathroesmus by describing a character as "a proud, haughty, consequential, turned-up-nose peacock." The device is used to exacerbate the snobbiest of the character.[2]
- Shakespeare, in The Tempest, uses synathroesmus in the following lines: "The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, / The solemn temples, the great glope itself"[4]: 216
- The following quote (with liberty taken to modernize archaic spelling) is an example given by Richard Sherry: "He is an harlot of his own body, he lies in wait for others, greedy, intemperate, wanton, proud, unnatural to his parents, unkind to his friends, troublesome to his kinsfolk, stubborn to his betters, disdainful to his equals, cruel to his inferiors, finally, intolerable to all men." Note the device, similar to the above example, being used to degrade its subject; Sherry describes his use of synathroesmus more akin to accumulatio.[5]: 50
- In The Path to Rome, Belloc declares, "So this threat about the heavy task of beginning breeds discouragement, anger, vexation, irritability, bad style, pomposity and infinitives split from helm to saddle, and metaphors mixed as the Carlton."[6]
Subcategories
[edit]Synathroesmus is a broad rhetorical category that describes types of listings; those subcategories include the following:
Synonymia
[edit]Synonymia is synathroesmus in which the listed terms are synonymous with each other[5]: 49 with the purpose of emphasizing emotional meaning or increasing clarity.[7]
For example, in Julius Caesar, a Roman tribune named Marullus insults the Caesar-supporting Romans: "You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!" This bdelygmia is an example of synonymia because it involves repeated synonyms and aims to intensify the pejorative name-calling.[7]
Synonymia comes from Latin synōnymia which was borrowed from sunōnumía (Greek: συνωνυμία) which comes from sunṓnumos (Greek: συνώνυμος; "of like name" ) and the noun-forming -ία suffix.[8] Ultimately, the word derives from syn- (Greek: σῠν-; alike, same) and onyma (Greek: ὄνομα / ὄνυμα; "name").[9]
Congeries
[edit]Congeries refers to synathroesmus involving words of differing meaning— though this distinction is not always made, and congeries may be viewed as synonymous with synathroesmus or the same as synonymia. While its constituents may not be synonymous, the elements of a congeries typically invoke the same meaning.
Galatians 5 is an example of a congeries: "22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law" (NIV).[10] Note how the individual nouns used to described the "fruit of the Spirit" are diverse and non-synonymous, but, nonetheless, have the same positive connotation.[4]: 213–214
Congeries, in English, literally means a collection or heap. The term is derived from Latin congeries ("heap, pile") which comes from the verb congerere ("to pile up") from con- ("with, together") and gerere ("to carry").[11] Congeries is an invariant noun as its singular is identical to the plural.[4]: 213
Accumulatio
[edit]Accumulatio, unlike the former two, involves the culmination of previously stated points or arguments via synathroesmus.[12] It is often used to summarize, emphasize, or strengthen the main points of an argument.[13]
The fourth book of Rhetorica ad Herennium provides an example of accumulatio in a courtroom argument: "From what vice, I ask, is this defendant free? What ground have you for wishing to acquit him of the suit? He is the betrayer of his own self respect, and the waylayer of the self-respect of others; covetous, intemperate, irascible, arrogant; disloyal to his parents, ungrateful to his friends, troublesome to his kin; insulting to his betters, disdainful of his equals and mates, cruel to his inferiors; in short he is intolerable to every one." Accumulatio, unlike some other uses of synathroesmus, draws from previously made arguments but has a similar rhetorical structure of listing elements in order to emphasize a point.[14]
Accumlatio, sometimes anglicely referred to as its "accumulation" (which is also its doublet), is derived directly from its homonymous Latin noun meaning "accumulation, heaping, piling up" which comes from the verb accumulare ("to amass") which further is derived from the prefix -ad, ("to") and cumulare ("to heap;" from noun cumulus: "a heap").[15][16][17]
References
[edit]- ↑ Burton, Gideon. "synathroesmus". Silva Rhetoricae. Retrieved July 10, 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - 1 2 3 Nordquist, Richard (May 1, 2021). "Synathroesmus: When Words Pile Up". ThoughtCo. Retrieved July 10, 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Synathroesmus". Garden of Eloquence. Retrieved July 10, 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - 1 2 3 4 5 Forsyth, Mark (November 7, 2013). "Congeries". The Elements of Eloquence. Berkeley, New York: Mark Forsyth. pp. 213–218. ISBN 9780425276181.
- 1 2 Sherry, Richard (1550). Hildebrandt, Herbert William (ed.). A Treatise of Schemes and Tropes by Richard Sherry (published March 30, 2009).
- ↑ Belloc, Hilaire (May 29, 1904). The Path to Rome. North Haven, Connecticut (published July 10, 2026). ISBN 9798807293350.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - 1 2 Burton, Gideon. "synonymia". Silva Rhetoricae. Retrieved July 10, 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "synonymia". Lexicurio. Retrieved July 10, 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "synonym". Etymonline. Retrieved July 10, 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Galatians 5:22-23". Bible Gateway. Retrieved July 10, 2026.
- ↑ "congeries". Etymonline. Retrieved July 10, 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ Burton, Gideon. "accumulatio". Silva Rhetoricae. Retrieved July 10, 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Accumulation". Literary Devices. May 1, 2017. Retrieved July 9, 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Chapter XL: Division and Accumulation". Rhetorica ad Herennium (PDF) (in Latin). Translated by Caplan, Harry. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 1954. p. 4.112. ISBN 9780674994447.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - ↑ "accŭmŭlātĭo". Latin Dictionary. Retrieved July 9, 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ Lanham, Richard A. (1991). A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms (2nd ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 1. ISBN 0-520-07669-9.
- ↑ "Origin and history of accumulation". Etymonline. Retrieved July 9, 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)